Democracy Now! Blog

Part 2 of our conversation on the 40th anniversary of the Chilean coup with Spanish lawyer Juan Garcés, a former personal adviser to ousted Chilean President Salvador Allende, and Peter Kornbluh, author of "The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability." [includes rush transcript]

Part two of our conversation with Wall Street Journal national security correspondent Adam Entous. He discusses his latest article, "U.S. Decided Not to Horse-Trade with Russia on Assad." [includes rush transcript]

British broadcasting legend David Frost has died at the age of 74. In 1977 he conducted a series of historic interviews with former president Richard Nixon who had resigned three years earlier. The interview was later dramatized in the film "Frost/Nixon."

As part of today’s national commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, we continue our discussion with Associate Producer Richard Kaplan of the rarely seen Oscar-nominated documentary about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement, "King: A Filmed Record...Montgomery to Memphis." [includes rush transcript]

“I hate war,” Koji Hosokawa told me as we stood next to the A-Bomb Dome in Hiroshima, Japan. The skeletal remains of the four-story building stand at the edge of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. The world watches in horror this summer as military conflicts rage, leaving destruction in their wake from Libya, to Gaza, to Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Ukraine. Never far from the dead and injured, nuclear-armed missiles stand by at the alert, waiting for the horrible moment when hubris, accident or inhumanity triggers the next nuclear attack. “I hate war,” Hosokawa reiterated. “War makes everyone crazy.”

On Friday we aired part of an audio recording of Todd Ashker, one of 79 prisoners on hunger strike in California since July 8. In this extended audio, he describes how he evolved from violence to a peaceful hunger-strike protest to call for better conditions. [includes rush transcript]

The Israeli assault on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip has entered its fourth week. Henry Siegman, a venerable dean of American Jewish thought and president of the U.S./Middle East Project, sat down for an interview with the Democracy Now! news hour. An ordained rabbi, Siegman is the former executive director of the American Jewish Congress and former executive head of the Synagogue Council of America, two of the major, mainstream Jewish organizations in the United States. He says the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories must end.

Watch the complete interview conducted Wednesday by independent journalist Alexa O’Brien with Pfc. Bradley Manning’s attorney, David Coombs–his first time speaking to the media after Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison, and ahead of Manning’s gender transition announcement Thursday. [includes rush transcript]

One of the greatest challenges in understanding the situation in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories is getting reliable information. This latest assault on Gaza reaffirms the key role played by the U.S. media in maintaining the information blockade. It also highlights the increasing importance of pressure applied by social networks.

Army Pfc. Bradley Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison for leaking classified information to Wikileaks. Manning faced a maximum of 90 years in prison after his conviction last month on charges of espionage, theft and fraud. Manning’s sentence will automatically go the Army Court of Criminal Appeals, where he can seek a reduction of his prison term.

A group of Australian and West Papuan activists have set sail on a Freedom Flotilla bound for the Indonesian territory of West Papua. We speak to West Papuan independence leader Benny Wenda. [includes rush transcript]

Since 2009, the legendary hip-hop group The Roots have made an unlikely transition as the nightly house band on NBC’s "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon." In this Democracy Now! web exclusive, Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, The Roots’ drummer and "Late Night" musical director, talks about the 2011 controversy that almost got them fired: For the walkout music introducing guest Michele Bachmann, the Republican lawmaker and then-presidential candidate, The Roots played the Fishbone song "Lyin’ Ass Bitch." [includes rush transcript]

Children are still fleeing violence in their native Central American home countries, seeking safety, at great risk, in distant lands. The issue is widely described here in the United States as a “border crisis,” but it isn’t that. We are experiencing a profound failure of economic globalization and U.S. foreign policy, amplified by failed, stagnant immigration policies here at home.

DN! In Depth

By Amy Goodman with Denis Moynihan — The corporate television newscasts spend more and more time covering the increasingly disruptive, costly and at times deadly weather. But they consistently fail to make the link between extreme weather and climate change.